...Though it’s unclear whether the forthcoming contract expirations of the entertainment industry’s writers, actors and directors will lead to a work stoppage over the next year, Hollywood is nonetheless frantically hedging its bets.

Producers, executives, agents and filmmakers are aware that even a hard-working star can most likely squeeze in no more than two movies before June 30 of next year, when the last of the deals end. After that date no studio wants to be caught with filming on its schedule, especially under expensive “pay or play” deals. (Such arrangements require companies to pay actors or others even if the movie isn’t made.)

And that has turned moviedom’s midsummer months into an unusually tense season. Deal makers are frantically trying to line up top actors for their presumed two-picture limit, even as they try to avoid thinking about the inevitable vacuum that will come after the contract expiration dates, with or without a strike, because no films are being set to shoot next July...

The squeeze can be particularly painful for directors, who can easily invest 18 months in preparing, shooting and refining a picture, and may find themselves out of work for a year or more if they do not pin down studio, star and script in the next few weeks...

In another closely watched decision, Jim Carrey, who is represented by the Creative Artists Agency, has been juggling at least three contenders for his presumed two slots. One, “Believe It or Not!,” would come from Paramount, with the director Tim Burton... Given that major feature films require months of preproduction and may require 16 weeks or more in front of the camera, the “be prepared” spirit means that most big casting choices for the next two years’ film schedule will soon have been made.

And Hollywood won’t have much to talk about come spring, except labor negotiations, politics and the weather.

“Next year at Cannes, it’s going to be dead,” said Mr. Whitesell, referring to the telephone action that usually connects Hollywood festivalgoers with business at home. “I mean dead.”